Sunday, September 08, 2013

Humor: It's a gas!

Many, many years ago, back when I was single and even girlfriendless in a callous, cold, uncaring world, an acquaintance asked me why I didn't have a girlfriend. I explained:

"I want only a deep spiritual relationship with a woman, but I don't have that kind of money!"

My interlocutor gave me a puzzled look. He was German.

A different time, I actually had a girlfriend, a Swiss-German girlfriend, who asked me if I believed in astrology. I said:

"No, but I'm told it works even if you don't believe in it!"

She gave me a puzzled look. As I said, she was Swiss-German.

Not that Germans have no jokes. They do. But German jokes are nothing to laugh at . . .

So . . . what is humor? I recently read an article on the subject, "Laughter and the Brain," by Richard Restak (The American Scholar, Summer 2013), which said -- among other things -- the following about humor:

All humor involves playing with what linguists call scripts (also referred to as frames). Basically, scripts are hypotheses about the world and how it works based on our previous life experiences. Consider what happens when a friend suggests meeting at a restaurant. Instantaneously our brains configure a scenario involving waiters or waitresses, menus, a sequence of eatables set out in order from appetizer to dessert, followed by a bill and the computation of a tip. This process, highly compressed and applicable to almost any kind of restaurant, works largely outside conscious awareness. And because our scripts are so generalized and compressed, we tend to make unwarranted assumptions based on them. Humor takes advantage of this tendency. Consider, for example, almost any joke from stand-up comedian Steven Wright, known for his ironic, deadpan delivery:

- I saw a bank that said "24 Hour Banking," but I didn't have that much time.

- I bought some batteries, but they weren't included. So I had to buy them again.

- I washed a sock. Then I put it in the dryer. When I took it out it was gone.

- I went into a store and asked the clerk if there was anything I could put under my coasters. He asked why I wanted to do that. I told him I wanted to make sure my coasters weren't scratching my table.

In each of these examples, everyday activities are given a different spin by forcing the listener to modify standard scripts about them.

Of the four jokes, I find the first funny, but the other three merely amusing. I wonder why? Wrong scripts for the latter three?

But about Germans . . . I was only joking. They actually do have a sense of humor. Let me tell you a German joke . . . Hmmm . . . I ought to be able to come up with one . . . Well, let me do some research on that and get back to you.

Meanwhile, this meteorological report just in: Humor no longer a fluid! In fact, it's a gas! Global warming blamed!

About Me

I am a professor at Ewha Womans University, where I teach composition, research writing, and cultural issues, including the occasional graduate seminar on Gnosticism and Johannine theology and the occasional undergraduate course on European history.
My doctorate is in history (U.C. Berkeley), with emphasis on religion and science. My thesis is on John's gospel and Gnosticism.
I also work as one-half of a translating team with my wife, and our most significant translation is Yi Kwang-su's novel The Soil, which was funded by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.
I'm also an award-winning writer, and I recommend my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, to anyone interested.
I'm originally from the Arkansas Ozarks, but my academic career -- funded through doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g., Fulbright, Naumann, Lady Davis) -- has taken me through Texas, California, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Israel and has landed me in Seoul, South Korea. I've also traveled to Mexico, visited much of Europe, including Moscow, and touched down briefly in a few East Asian countries.
Hence: "Gypsy Scholar."